It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past

“Russia as a country has not been willing to face the full truth about Communism. Some people insist that the scale of the crimes has been exaggerated or that they were a product of necessity in a unique historical situation. Some say that there were comparable crimes in the West. Many argue that the Soviet system had redeeming features, that it brought literacy to millions of people and modernized the country. In fact, the failure to condemn Communism unreservedly—as Nazism was condemned in Germany—is now take for granted in Russia. During the period 1929 to 1953, eighteen million persons passed through the Soviet labor camp system. The artificial famine of 1932–33 took seven million lives. Nearly a million persons were shot during the Great Terror of 1937–38. In all, the number of persons who died in peacetime as a result of the actions of the Communist authorities is estimated at twenty million. If one considers the demographic impact on three generations (1917–53), it can be estimated that the total population loss—those killed and those who were never born—comes to 100 million persons. Despite this, there is no will in Russia to understand the moral significance of what took place.”—“Introduction”